All by Mandy Mitchell

Review- Rattlesnakes and Wildfire Smoke: Margo Cilker’s Sophomore Album is a Bittersweet Folk Rollick Through the Valley of Margo’s Memories

Review- Rattlesnakes and Wildfire Smoke: Margo Cilker’s Sophomore Album is a Bittersweet Folk Rollick Through the Valley of Margo’s Memories

Mandy Mitchell

Apricots don’t sell like silicone, and California’s once eden-like Santa Clara Valley now stands as a shiny but barren testament to that fact. Margo Cilker, whose debut album, Pohorylle, quickly rose like cream to the top of the favored list for critics after it’s quiet release in 2021, is a 5th generation native to the Santa Clara region, which unfortunately means she and her family have watched from the front row as the once fruitful valley, known informally as the Valley of the Heart’s Delight, was sacrificed piece by piece on the altar of progress. 

Cilker’s newly released sophomore album is a stirring and nostalgic tribute to the valley in its natural hay day, and therefore goes by the same title, Valley of the Heart’s Delight. Margo teamed up again with Sarah Cahoone, her producer for Pohorylle, and using the understated musicianship and lyric focused production that garnered so many critical accolades during their first collaboration, the duo have created a second offering just as solid and free as the first. The Valley of the Heart’s Delight culminates as something more than just bittersweet homage, and instinctively feels like a vivid and lyrically illustrative magic portal to a land long paved under in concrete; the Santa Clara Valley of old. 

Review- An Americana Odyssey: Tommy Prine’s 'This Far South' Takes Him From the Shadows to the Stage

Review- An Americana Odyssey: Tommy Prine’s 'This Far South' Takes Him From the Shadows to the Stage

Mandy Mitchell

Tommy Prine’s highly anticipated debut album This Far South has been on its own in the wild a mere week, but is steadily making a name for itself as one of the most refreshingly individualistic releases the Americana genre has produced in some time. This Far South melds Tommy’s creative lyrical heritage with a rockin’ sensibility born of ‘90’s grunge and thoughtful notes of graven imagery, resulting in an intriguing and somewhat unexpected track by track journey into Tommy’s personal evolution from the free living son of the Great John Prine, to a stand alone musician in his own right - out of the shadows and onto the stage with gusto.

Review- Kassi Valazza: Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Review- Kassi Valazza: Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Mandy Mitchell

The Cult of Kassi Valazza, founded in 2019 after her self-released debut album, Dear Dead Days, is sure to get a surge in membership following her newest release of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, a stellar cosmic soup concocted of hazy, honky tonk highway vibes and that neon-lit, lilting Valazza warble. 

…Knows Nothing finds it heart and soul in Valazza, and its feet in Portland-based band TK and the Holy Know Nothings, made up of Taylor Kingman (guitars, bass, vocals), Jay Cobb Anderson (harmonica, guitars, pedal steel, bass), Lewi Longmire (pedal steel, piano, bass, trumpet), Sydney Nash (organ, Farfisa, cornet, Wurlitzer), and Tyler Thompson (drums). The group’s swirling psychedelia combines with Valazza’s gutsy and graceful poetry for a singular sound that washes over the listener like a flash flood, heavy and without warning.

The Shootouts & their Honky Tonk Posse Take Another Swing with Stampede

The Shootouts & their Honky Tonk Posse Take Another Swing with Stampede

Mandy Mitchell

Ohio based band The Shootouts have released their third album, Stampede, hot on the heels of their 2021 critically acclaimed sophomore album, Bullseye. 

In the summer of 2022, the band's focus was on touring and riding the high of recognition earned by the hard work put into Bullseye (produced by BR549 founder Chuck Mead) when the musical high road made an unexpected turn directly into the realm of longtime frontman and 10-time Grammy-winning founder of Asleep at the Wheel, Ray Benson. 

Butts Fights Bare Knuckled with the Premiere of Blood

Butts Fights Bare Knuckled with the Premiere of Blood

Mandy Mitchell

Kaitlin Butts debuts her first music video with her January 29th release of “Blood,” a no-holds-barred, inside look at marital despair and what it means to love a narcissist. 

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to catch Kaitlin and her band, the Asstronauts, live since her 2022 release of her acclaimed album What Else Can She Do most likely are already aware of the emotional, and deeply personal connection she has to the “Blood” track. Co-written with Angaleena Presley of the Pistol Annies, “Blood” was largely born of Butts’ own childhood experience of bearing witness to the emotional abuse suffered by her mother at the hands of her narcissistic father. Live listeners ride cathartic waves of redemption with Kaitlin as the female protagonist of the song plaintively, but purposefully, confronts her abuser with her mistreatment. All those who have ever found themselves trapped in a similar relationship instinctively understand the bravery inherent in simply naming out loud the injustice of their maltreatment, as that mere act alone is enough to elicit an explosion of anger from the aggressor as they attempt to gaslight their victim and shift any accountability away from themselves. 

Melissa Carper Bares her Ramblin' Soul

Melissa Carper Bares her Ramblin' Soul

Mandy Mitchell

Directly on the heels of her critically acclaimed 2021 LP, Daddy's Country Gold, Melissa Carper barrels into the homestretch of 2022 with a jumping and jovially jazzy new release, Ramblin' Soul. Sure to further intoxicate an already captivated and ever expanding following, the 13 track LP boasts lyrics that read as a romantic vagabond autobiography melded deftly with that distinctive Carper sound born of the blues, the earliest of rock-'n'-roll, classic country, western swing, and steeped in steadfast soul.

Memphis Kee Debuts Wimberley

Memphis Kee Debuts Wimberley

Mandy Mitchell

Memphis Kee has partnered with Adam Odor and yellow DOG Studios in the Texas Hill Country for his October 28th album release Wimberley, titled after the location of its conception. A rollicking mix of Hill Country Rockabilly, Americana, and Roots, Wimberley leans heavily on Kee's personal experiences while adhering to no genre in particular, resulting in a unique collection of songs reminiscent of the sound of early pioneers in Red Dirt and amped up with a healthy helping of 90's rock.

Courtney Patton: Electrostatic

Courtney Patton: Electrostatic

Mandy Mitchell

Texas based singer-poet Courtney Patton's latest solo album, Electrostatic, has been set loose upon the world, and even a precursory listen proves the musically gifted Jill-of-all-trades has put the four years between album releases to excellent use. Whereas Patton's previous work was an endearingly stripped down and lyrically personal approach to the creative process, the new album delves deeply into melodic craft without losing any of Patton's poignant and raw writing charm.

Fullbright Puts his Faith in the Fellowship of a Song

Fullbright Puts his Faith in the Fellowship of a Song

Mandy Mitchell

Oklahoma native, John Fullbright, was first propelled upon the Americana music scene as an original member of the well-loved Turnpike Troubadours, and later established himself firmly as a gifted lyricist with the release of two solo albums, notably Grammy nominated "From The Ground Up" in 2012. After the release of his 2014 sophomore album, "Songs," Fullbright vanished abruptly into the belly of the Tulsa music collective for eight quiet years, only to re-emerge recently with a new solo album, "Liars," scheduled for release September 30th, and an evolved approach to songwriting and music production that relies on collaboration and community rather than heavy handed singer-songwriter perspective.

Joe Purdy Finds Restoration and Reclamation in the Mountains of New Mexico

Joe Purdy Finds Restoration and Reclamation in the Mountains of New Mexico

Mandy Mitchell

Arkansas born folksinger, Joe Purdy has released four meritorious bodies of work over the course of the last five months, bringing his total album count up to an impressive 18 albums and firmly establishing himself as a consistently prolific songwriter. More notable than the quantity of albums is the quality and method of the latest releases. After taking a six year hiatus to heal a significant case of songwriter's burnout, Purdy has returned to his musical career with genuine gusto and is cranking out thoughtful, well-written, tastefully produced tracks at a head spinning pace, much to the benefit of loyal folk audiences who have missed his understated and pure approach to the craft since his 2016 album release of Who Will Be Next?

Cole Allen: Regular Dude, Extraordinaire and his new album Dry County Culture

Cole Allen: Regular Dude, Extraordinaire and his new album Dry County Culture

Mandy Mitchell

East Texas native Cole Allen isn’t what you’d typically picture when you imagine a root’s musician. He has no top hat, wears no conchos, has no tatted sleeve, and I’ve never spotted him in any vintage pearl snaps. In fact, if one was to conjure up a visual for Cole, Dick Van Dyke’s portrayal of Bert and his one-man-band in the original Mary Poppins isn’t too far from the mark. Most of Cole’s live gigs involve just himself with what appears to be fifteen instruments strapped to his various appendages (though he claims to employ just a harmonica, guitar, and a Farmer Foot drum kit). His folksy solo approach was born of necessity according to Cole’s own bio, as early in his career he worked by day as a civil-engineer and spent his weekends traveling the circuit as a competitive bull rider, leaving little time to form a proper band. I first caught Cole live 5 or 6 years ago in Lindale, Texas and his introduction of himself at that time as an everyday, normal, working man lucky enough to get to perform some music by night was both unassuming and endearing, if not a tad overly modest.

The Dancing Rabbit Music Association Puts McAlester on the Live Music Map

The Dancing Rabbit Music Association Puts McAlester on the Live Music Map

Mandy Mitchell

Sitting on the patio of Spaceship Earth, a vibey little coffee shop in downtown McAlester, Oklahoma late on a windy evening in early May, I reflected on the night’s events in a state of pleasant perplexion. Happy, indistinct chatter folded itself into wonderfully warbly melodies wafting from the singer-songwriter sized stage from the back of the establishment. A large crowd had gathered, some in business attire, some as funkily clad musicians, and some came as casually clothed rural citizens straight from a hard day’s work. All conversed freely and happily with each other, mingling in and out of groups and exchanging hugs and pleasantries in between turning to give the band a rousing round of encouragement. Earlier in the evening, and just a block or so up the street from where I currently sat, I had caught the live sets of the talented Canadian folk artist with a cult-like following, Joe Pug, who had opened for possibly the most talented lyricist Oklahoma has ever produced, John Moreland.

S.G. Goodman: Teeth Marks

S.G. Goodman: Teeth Marks

Mandy Mitchell

When S. G. Goodman’s lilting warble drops in on the title track of her upcoming album, “Teeth Marks,” one immediately senses the absolute deftness with which Goodman has found the cathartic vein of empathy coursing largely untapped through her listeners. The rise and fall crescendos of her “distinct warble” accompanied by the rush of soul-wasting pain and tempering moments of searing joy draw her audience in to revered silence as we listen to ethereal highs and lows brought to us on waves of new Southern Punk’s latest patron saint, who Billboard has also dubbed endearingly “the queer farmer’s daughter.”

The album has two good feet known to us as empathy and trauma. Goodman uses them to walk us through lessons in heart pains we have all experienced, but the message, mood, and tone come to us filtered through a haunted voicebox born through years of harmonizing with Goodman’s elderly church choir members while growing up in rural Appalachia. Just as her breakout album, “Old Time Feeling,” was consistently stellar from start to finish, so, too, does her upcoming 2022 offering follow suit.

Sturgill Tells the Story: The Ballad of Dood & Juanita

Sturgill Tells the Story: The Ballad of Dood & Juanita

Mandy Mitchell

Sturgill may have had the title for his latest concept album, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, in his head for years, but he reportedly kept hitting a wall when it came to actually bringing the idea to fruition. Simpson stumbled upon inspiration during his recent drive home from Oklahoma after wrapping up filming for Sorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, in which Simpson co-stars. According to Simpson, the drive proved fateful when he found himself in the clutches of Willie’s 1975 conceptual masterpiece Red Headed Stranger. After listening to the album 7 or 8 times on repeat, he mentally blended the album’s style and purpose with a picture his wife had recently sent him of two antique Kentucky long rifles and his long-held notions of a tribute album for his grandfather Dood, whom fans met in Panbowl and came to know better in Hero. Sturgill says it took two days for the entire album to culminate lyrically, with Sturgill’s grandfather Dood stepping into somewhat of a historical fiction protagonist role and each supporting character, Sham, Sam, and Juanita, being paid homage with their own individual tune. With the writing done, Sturgill called upon the talented musicians who helped him create his last two bluegrass albums to help give his bird of a story a song in its throat. Willie even lent ol’ Dood a hand, cranking out a signature Spanish guitar solo on Trigger that deftly gives structure to our meeting with Juanita during the tune by that name. The entire process “from coming into [Sturgill’s] head and out of the speakers” took a mere five days.

Melissa Carper: Daddy's Country Gold

Melissa Carper: Daddy's Country Gold

Mandy Mitchell

If there ever was an album born to be sentimentally spun on warm, black vinyl, Melissa Carper’s Daddy’s Country Gold is it. Ethereal vocals draped leisurely over a stand up bass line puts listeners in the mood to tenderly twirl around the kitchen with their beau as in days of old. From the first track of Makin’ Memories to the last haunted notes of The Stars Are Aligned, nostalgic notes comprised of classic country, western swing and jazz seem to waft in from the early 20th century, carried in on the shoulders of Melissa Carper, a protege of sorts of the great Jimmie Rogers and Patsy Cline. The album’s conception stems from a mixture of Carper’s own upbringing in her family’s band and years spent busking through the nation’s music hubs, forming notable musical collaborations like The Carper Family, Sad Daddy, and Buffalo Gals along the way. Carper, dubbed Daddy by bandmates in years past for always knowing how to take care of ‘bidness,’ has in this collection a true testament to what magic can happen when an artist not only has a clear inner vision, but also the wherewithal to carry it forth to fruition.


Rachel Brooke: The Mystic Return of a Grievous Angel

Rachel Brooke: The Mystic Return of a Grievous Angel

Mandy Mitchell

So often in our modern age of shifting musical cannon boundaries and genre nonconformity, we hear the resounding plea for a return to simpler times and simpler songs made by purist fans and old soul hipsters wistfully clinging to a bygone era. With her newest album, The Loneliness in Me, Rachel Brooke channels a returning cosmic grievous honky tonk angel, her unembellished and commanding vocals inexplicably containing the specific sound of a haunted echo as it bounces off the baseboards of the oldest dance halls of the country music circuit.


Stephanie Lambring: Heavy Things to Say

Stephanie Lambring: Heavy Things to Say

Mandy Mitchell

In Stephanie Lambring’s upcoming album, “Autonomy,” delicate melodies combine with bare-faced lyrics forged in fire to deliver a haunting punch in the gut as the singer/songwriter reemerges after a long hiatus away from her music career. Bareknuckle truths are expertly folded into masterful lyrics aimed at ripping apart the societal cages that bind the modern woman. With topics ranging from sexuality, failed marriages, eating disorders, suicide, and the hypocrisy that often accompanies organized religion, no subject is sacred. ‘Autonomy’ will be released into the wild October 23rd, and leaves the listener examining shared hurts ages old, as well as the sometimes questionable ethics of personal moral codes.